Tough, Old Monkey

The money quote after CBS finally realized that, no, they didn't need to saddle themselves with the ugly old chancre sore that was Billy Packer... is that he's going to pursue "other projects in basketball."Packer then declined further comment.

Look, this is a petty lie as petty lies go, but it still rankles. This guy is 68 years old. He has just been euthanized from the job that he heled for the last 34 conesecutive years, the last 27 of them with CBS. What other projects, really? Yammering to the other seniors at the home? Coaching terrified middle schoolers? Becoming the NCAA's angry old man ambassador to Third World nations? Illuminate us, Billy. Please.

Oh, and on the off chance that you think I'm being too hard on an old man? Keep in mind these two choice quotes from the AP obit.

In 2000, Packer bristled when asked to identify himself by two female students checking credentials before a game at Duke. One of the students, Jen Feinberg, quoted Packer as saying: “You need to get a life. Since when do we let women control who gets into a men’s basketball game? Why don’t you go find a women’s game to let people into?”

Packer later e-mailed an apology to the women.

Four years earlier, he apologized on the air after he was criticized for referring to then-Georgetown guard Allen Iverson as a “tough little monkey.”

Don't be a familiar, Billy.